Interview questions for The Signpost issue 3, 2020
edit1. Please describe yourself as a Wikipedian – how long here, what are your interests? Are you a member of any special communities on-Wiki or off (especially medical communities)?
- I joined a little over 14 years ago, but I became much more active at the beginning of 2020. I primarily work with the Guild of Copyeditors to copyedit articles, but I also frequent the Teahouse to answer questions. I'm a member of the WikiProject COVID-19.
2. (optional) Please describe your personal situation re COVID-19. Are you in a hard-hit community? Has it affected your work life? Health of self, friends, family?
- If by hard-hit you mean fatalities, then yes. My city (and by extension, my province) is taking serious precautions to curb further infection (such as the recent ban on gatherings and events with more than 50 people), but we're not on the level of Italy just yet. My family and I have been preparing since January, so we're not in any mad scramble for supplies. In regards to work I have personally reduced my hours to limit my amount of exposure to the public.
3. Please describe how COVID has affected your on-Wiki activity. Are you devoting your activity to any topics differently?
- It has caused me to spend more time at home due to event cancellations and reduced work hours, so I've been a lot more active on Wikipedia than I usually am. The pandemic is making me focus more on COVID-19 articles, particularly those in North America.
3.1 Any technical issues with your Internet connection or otherwise affecting online access?
- I have not noticed any differences in my Internet connection since the pandemic made its way to my country. One thing I have noticed is that when archiving news articles there is now a queue for the website that I use which takes about 3 minutes when before I only had to wait under a minute for the snapshot to finish compiling.
3.2 Are there any event cancellations affecting you, such as local meetups, national or international Wikimedia or FOSS events?
- There have been a few. I occasionally act on the side, and with the blanket ban on gatherings a play I was in got cancelled along with a show I recently auditioned for. While I am not financially burdened by this outcome I cannot say the same thing for some of my friends.
4. Please describe how people you know are using Wikipedia as an information resource (differently) during the crisis.
- I do not talk much about my Wikipedia activity with my friends and acquaintances so I cannot say if they are using Wikipedia differently now.
5. Have you seen any popular press about Wikipedia's medical coverage? Is it accurate in your opinion?
- Not much. There is this article that asserts Wikipedia "has a structural advantage over the big social networks", which I can agree with after observing (and being involved in) the revert process.